Robert H. Hyung Chan Kim

Profiles distinguished Asian Americans ranging from historical figures to athletes and including both prominent and less familiar individuals who have made significant contributions in their fields.

With California's passage of the Save Our State Initiative in 1994, fear of aliens has once again appeared in U.S. legislative history. Since 1790, congressional legislation on federal immigration and naturalization policy has been harsh on Asian immigrants, although less so since 1965. This documentary history covers all major immigration laws passed by Congress since 1790. The volume opens with an overview of the basis on which Congress has restricted Asian immigration. It then includes discussions of particular immigration legislation, showing the significance to Asian Americans and the documents themselves.With California's passage of the Save Our State Initiative in November 1994, fear of aliens has once again appeared in U.S. legislative history. Since 1790, congressional legislation establishing federal immigration and naturalization policy has been particularly harsh on Asian immigrants. Although Congress has been less hostile to Asian immigration since 1965, there was a renewed effort to limit immigration from Asia as recently as 1989, and the restrictive national mood will undoubtedly find its way into the 1996 elections. Showing the impact of immigration laws on Asian immigrants, this documentary history covers all major immigration laws passed by Congress since 1790.The volume's opening chapter points to three major theses—that initially Congress restricted and excluded Asian immigration on the basis of its traditional policy of denying citizenship to nonwhite people, that Congress denied Asians entry to the U.S. on the grounds that their culture made them incompatible with Americans, and that Congress passed laws treating each of the Asian ethnic groups as a racialized ethnic group. The volume then includes discussions of particular immigration legislation, showing the significance to Asian Americans and the documents themselves.

This book describes the historical and legal experiences of Americans of Asian ancestry who began to come to the United States in the mid-19th century. Like all immigrants in America, they arrived with hopes of making a better life and home in a free country. Instead, Asian-Americans have been mistreated and discriminated against by their fellow Americans--even by Congress and the Supreme Court, which should have made and judged laws without prejudice. This study examines the way immigration and naturalization laws were unfairly administered against Asian immigrants and throws light on a less than admirable period of American legal history. It will be of great interest to scholars in Asian American studies, legal history, and American history.

This documentary history critiques major Supreme Court decisions on litigations that Asian Americans brought before the Court over the past 150 years. In eight sections, contributing scholars all consider cases within three conceptual frameworks; (1) the commonly held belief that Asian Americans could not become members of the American community because of their race, (2) the once widely held belief that Orientals are mysterious and inferior, and (3) the assumption that all Asians in America are foreigners. The book begins with an overview by editor Kim. In section 2, Braeman treats major cases concerning the question of the government's right to exclude, expel, or deport persons of Asian ancestry. In the next section, Hull focuses on major cases on the constitutional question of U.S. citizenship for persons of Asian ancestry. Stuen then discusses cases dealing with the alien land laws of California and Washington. The Japanese internment cases are discussed by Minami and Bannai; and cases dealing with Asian Americans' legal fight to claim their rights for employment, language, and education follow. Next, Gotanda casts the problem of denying Asian Americans their constitutional rights within the analytical framework of the Asian American identity. In the final chapter Tamayo covers the latest changes in America's immigration policies, reviewing major immigration laws passed by Congress during the 20th century and discussing implications of the Immigration Act of 1990. The volume concludes with a case index, a name index, and a subject index.

This exhaustive bibliography is the result of Kim's research of the Asian American experience for almost two decades. It contains some 3,396 entries in the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities, arranged in chapters that address dozens of pertinent subjects and experiential areas. The main body of the work, the annotated bibliography, is divided into two major sections: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Perspectives. Entries there are organized by topic rather than by ethnic group; the major literature of each topic receives a lengthier and more thorough annotation.In annotating doctoral dissertations, the emphasis is placed on research methodology and findings. An insightful introductory essay written by Shirley Hune enhances the reader's understanding of the Asian American experience within the context of the development of American scholarship on immigration and immigrants. To aid the student and reseacher, each chapter has been subdivided into sections labelled Books and Monographs, Periodicals, and Theses and Dissertations. The chapters cover such diverse topics as marriage and family, justice, law, and politics, Japanese internment, and Asian American Women's Studies, among many others. This commendable and much anticipated volume fills an apparent need and will surely become an essential tool for scholars, students, and researchers in Asian American studies.